First Crush

Daddy graduated yesterday! We're all so proud of him, and Ryan had great fun yelling "Yeah, Daddy!" as he walked to receive his diploma. As excited as he was for Daddy though, I think the big highlight of Ryan's day was seeing Mrs. Lundy again. Cathy has watched Ryan and Abby for us numerous times over the last several years, and I think Ryan has a crush on her. He gets the goofiest grin on his face whenever we mention her name!

As you can see from this picture (a genuine smile, no less!), he's in heaven being with Mrs. Lundy! She was like Mary Poppins with her bag of tricks. She brought quiet toys and games for the kids to play with, and it was a huge hit. I brought some too, but of course mine were old and boring. I had to laugh when Mr. Lundy looked at Ryan after dinner and solemnly informed Ryan that Cathy was coming home with him!

Farewell to Zoo Trips

As far as Ryan is concerned, the zoo is all about the sandbox and the jungle jeep, so he's not terribly heart-broken that our annual pass expires at the end of this month. Still, he had a good time yesterday as we did our final zoo tour. I asked each one which animal they wanted to be sure to see. Ryan said the meerkats. Sadly, they were the only animals that day who decided to hide, so we didn't get to say goodbye to them.

But to Ryan's delight, we didn't miss playing on the jungle jeep. Fortunately for him, there were no other kids around wanting to play on it too, so they played for about 20 minutes uninterrupted! I don't know why exactly, but he loves this jeep.

The stork was very visible today, and we got a good look at him. Who in the world had the bright idea to say that this ugly creature delivered babies?! It's got to be one of the ugliest birds I've ever seen.

New Chores

Ryan has a few chores he does every day. He must get dressed, hang up jammies, make his bed and clean his room before breakfast (usually it's clean when he goes to bed, so there's not much to do really). He also used to put away the clean silverware, but not long after we moved to our new house we passed the silverware chore to Abby and Ryan began sweeping the dining room after breakfast and lunch.

At first he was delighted at this task, but soon enough the novelty wore off. I noticed today, however, that he's actually doing a pretty good job! My expectations haven't been very high, but I have been training him how to do it correctly. I told him that once he masters this job we can maybe find a different one for him to do, so perhaps he is motivated to perfect it so he doesn't have to do it anymore. At any rate, he did a great job today!

School in the Great Outdoors

We have been plugging along pretty steadily with school the last month. We have gotten into a routine, and it suits us all pretty well. Keeping Abigail busy can still be a bit of a challenge, but she has really lengthened her attention span, thankfully. Ryan pretty much does his school by himself, except for reading to me. I give him math flashcards or a math worksheet, and he does those by himself. I am nearby listening to make sure he is actually doing them though. Then he does the writing assignment I gave him.

We're currently working on addition and subtraction up to 6, and he is practicing his alphabet and numbers still. Last week he had fun practicing writing Happy Father's Day, I Love You, Ryan. I know Daddy will treasure his handwritten card!


We took our first break since we began this two months ago. We went camping, and though we did do school one day while we were there, we took a break the rest other days and the rest of the week that Daddy was home from work. I wondered how much a week break would effect Ryan's reading and math, but I was pleasantly surprised by how well he did that first day back.


We also had lots of learning opportunities on our camping trip. Both kids learned a little about lichen, aka Spanish Moss, (it was everywhere). We saw deer, ground squirrels, Stellar Jays, frogs, ospreys, and several different kinds of ducks. Daddy gave some lessons on fishing gear, which really grabbed their attention! It was fun, tiring trip, and we're looking forward to our next one.

Cars

Ever since Ryan saw the first preview for the movie Cars, he has been dying to go see it. Since Daddy was on vacation opening day, we took the kids to see it. Ryan absolutely loved it! His favorite character is Mater, and he was thrilled yesterday when he got a toy Mater in his Happy Meal at McDonald's today.

Little Fisherman

Last year (or was it the year before?) Ryan received his very own fishing rod, though he hasn't had too many opportunities to use it. On our camping trip last week, he got to use it several times. Though he didn't catch anything (the bank fishing was terrible), he told us his favorite part of camping was fishing. This made Daddy pretty happy! As I was getting dinner ready on our last evening camping, Ryan asked to put his rod in the water. So Daddy got him rigged up and told him to go have fun. He walked to the campsite across the way to the lake shore and sat there fishing all by himself for about 30 minutes. It was really cute! We hope to take him to a local fishing hole soon so he can actually catch some fish.

Timothy Lake Camping

Ryan has been asking to go camping for over a year now. We took him once when he was six months old, but we haven't been since. So this year we wanted to make sure and go at least once. I wasn't very confident that he would enjoy it because he is more of a homebody than I am, but the only way to find out was to go. So we made reservations for three nights and four days, and headed to Timothy Lake in the foothills of Mt. Hood.

Overall we had a good time, but there were some rough patches, especially at bedtime. Ryan did ask to go home several times, but then an hour later would say he never wanted to go home. We took a three-mile hike to another part of the lake, and the kids splashed in the water, which was a highlight for them both. Ryan got to watch them put a boat in the water and take one out, which was exciting for him. He got a blister on the hike home (time for new shoes) and was a little grumpy, but for such a long hike, both kids did great! Once we got home, they both forgot how tired they were and began playing around our campsite.

Since we had the entire campground to ourselves, with the exception of the camp hosts, the kids were able to run around and play at the other nearby campsites, climbing on rocks, jumping off of picnic tables and finding hiding places. Except for the rain the first day, we had a near perfect conditions...sunshine though not too hot, and no other people around!

We are already planning at least one more camping trip this summer, so it turned out more positive than negative. We were all tired and worn out (not to mention unbelievably filthy) by the time we piled into the van to leave. Ryan tried to stay awake, but he only lasted about 20 minutes before falling asleep for most of the ride home.

One Ride

It was Family Day at the Portland Rose Festival today, and that meant free admission and $1 kiddie rides. The kids were really excited to ride on some rides, even Ryan! Unfortunately, the $1 kiddie rides ended at 2:00pm, and we missed them. Big bummer since the regular price is $3. We explained our mistake and let them each ride one ride, and then left the midway. They both chose to ride the same ride, and they had fun and were pretty good sports about the whole thing. Ryan especially felt better when the owners of this cute little race car let him sit in a real race car and pretend to drive!

Tall Ships

The Portland Rose Festival began this month, and one of the fun things they offer annually is a tour of tall ships. The Lady Washington and The Hawaiian Chieftain were open for free dockside tours, and we took the kids aboard. It was educational and very fun.

Ryan really wasn't that excited by the tour, but Mommy, Daddy, and Abby had a great time. He was terrified to get near the cannon (or let Abby get near it), but we finally convinced him it wasn't "loaded" or dangerous! Once he was convinced it was safe, he wanted to have his picture taken sitting on the cannon, though he only reluctantly let Daddy take this picture of Mommy and him with a "pirate."

As a fun side note for my Disney-loving readers, The Lady Washington was The Interceptor in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. There is a piece of the Interceptor's name plate tacked up on the galley wall that is signed by members of the cast and crew.